Hi All,
I haven't responded to each post individually, that would be quite a job. For the most part the advice, insights and criticisms you have all offered have been offered with the aim of being constructive. For that I thank you all.
I'll try not to refer to individual posts - with one exception. I want to refer to it not in context of our incident, but in general as to its effect on these forums. I think the purpose of the Near "Misses and lessons learned" is that we all get to learn from each others mistakes and experiences. Posts which (intentionally or not) come across as a simple slating and no more serve no purpose other than to discourage people from posting about their experiences. Imagine the 10 dive diver, just passed OW, maybe a little meek in their nature with an incident they want to learn from. I'm dismayed at anything which discourages them from posting. I'd hope those posters (and I'm sure you know who you are) might take a moment to reflect on that. No-one passes OW and comes out as a competent tech diver.
I'll put a summary first (for those that don't wish to read the rest of this) and then I'll try and answer the questions which have been raised, both by offering a little about our background, our typical diving and then also some of the specific questions.
In summary
1
Complaceny. This is our local lake, you could almost call it our playground. I think we got complacent. This is made even worse by the fact that I had actually raised complaceny when diving this lake before, specifically citing the road accident statistic that something like 90% of car accidents happen within one mile of home. Having identified this, raised it and discussed it we then did nothing about it and went in clearly quite complacent. Slap me round the head with a wet fish... that was failure number one. Lesson learnt.
2
Poor/Weak Signalling technique. Some have questioned Ian's response to my signals, I think the problem starts before that. We're effectively doing a night dive... yet I'm pointing my torch at him with one hand and signalling with the other. What on earth was I thinking? On the other hand Ian had opted to leave his main light off, maybe I'm so used to him searching out the signal with that, that it just didn't occur to me. I'm not sure on that little detail but we both need to go away and brush up on signalling generally, and low vis/light signalling specifically. That was failure number two. Lesson Learnt.
3
Lack of urgency. I've included it here as one for me to think about. I'm not sure I entirely agree with it, but see below where I've gone into in more detail about it. Lesson Learnt? Ummm, not sure... it's got me thinking which is a good thing.
4
Leaving regs dangling. Big fail on my part, I had already identified entanglement hazards and then left the primary and octopus loose and dangling. Better find me that wet fish again 'cos I'm going to need another slap. Lesson Learnt.
5 [-]That you can
slow down the rate of air loss by kinking the hose. Noted and learnt[/-].
There are a number of further issues raised above, I haven't addressed them in the summary because whilst I think they are entirely valid, I also think that if Ian and I had dealt with (1) Complacency and (2) Signalling, then we would never have gone on to those other areas which have quite rightly been raised.
On a positive note, neither of us panicked. I was working through resolving the problem (within the training that I've received), at the same time as thinking two steps ahead as to what options I'd have (or not have) in front of me shortly. I think if I had panicked and bolted, I'd be questioning whether I was cut out for diving. The lack of panic left me plenty of mental capacity to work things through to their possible conclusions before they occurred. I know some of you disagree with my specific actions and (with hindsight) there are places where I do too but I think that is a limitation of my prior training, rather than an issue with my thinking or mindset.
So for the real masochists amongst you, a little more detail follows
Some Background
Ian: SAA Club Diver - this is approximately a PADI OW+AOW, but with rescue. Ian has done about 500 dives. Me: Up until very recently when I crossed over to SAA, PADI OW + AOW. I've then done the catch up skills to attain SAA Club Diver cert. The dive in the video is my 95th dive.
A few of you have pointed to it, and yes, our training is quite specific. In the event of a freeflow:
- sip air from the freeflowing reg
- ascend
Obviously I strayed from our training, and hopefully the reasons why will become apparent. I don't think they were 'mistakes' in the traditional sense - in most cases they were a considered decision.
The Lake
This is a private lake on a farm quite close to home. The video really does not do justice to the dark down there. It is a very small and narrow lake with almost vertical sides for the last 5/10 metres. That line we are using is actually tied to a bus. It took us nearly a year of diving in that lake to find it. I hope that gets across the conditions in there.
If we'd have wandered off that line at all - believe me, we wouldn't have found it again on that dive. As we wanted to stay on the line for safety (should our planned CBL's get out of control) we stayed on it.
On the conditions and whether we found them too challenging, no not all. Ian and I use that lake specifically to train in challenging conditions, the reason being if we can do it down there with 12 inches of vis, it should be much easier in the UK Ocean on the bad days when we get 5 feet of vis.
The Descent
Some of you have mentioned descent technique. I'm afraid a face to face free descent is just never going to happen in UK waters. We have some of the largest tidal ranges in the world, bringing with them incredible currents. For this reason ~9 out of 10 dives in the UK will involve a line descent, and the line will typically be pulled tight at about 45 degrees by the current. It is simply impossible to do a face to face, or even a side by side. Because we can have very narrow slack water windows, we will typically jump in at the end of the tidal movement (with some current still running) in order to carry out the actual dive during slack water.
This type of descent then is the norm for us so is probably now habit.
What is an SAA dive leader
Well, it isn't as grand as it sounds
It certainly isn't anywhere near PADI Divemaster cert. This link probably explains better than I can.
SAA GRADES
What was the water temp?
7 celsius / 45 Fahrenheit. My regs are cold water rated and I've dived them well below that. I am quite certain it wasn't a cold water freeflow.
Safety Stop - Yes or No?
Some slightly contradictory information here but I think it is agency related, ie just the nature of our differing training levels / training agencies.
For example, some suggest that they would have blown through the stops, on the video I called for a one minute stop. Other's suggest a series of actions to stop the freeflow, which I suspect would take upto a minute.
Whilst that isn't exactly contradictory, one suggests get out that minute sooner, the other taking an extra minute to try and fix the problem.
Again, I think that is mostly an agency difference. I don't disagree with either of those views and have taken away some very useful information and learning from them.
Common Kit Config
Yes this an age old debate, I dived with probably 20 different divers over the past 12 months so even if I went to a standard GUE config - I wouldn't get any benefit as none of the others are GUE. Ie, the problem of not knowing each others gear / diving different configs would still exist.
"Drill Over" Signals
The advice has been both that (I am paraphrasing here)....
- Don't use a signal for drill over
- Use a signal for drill over
Communication Improvement - Night Signals
I think this is one of the pertinent pieces of advice you've given us. Without doubt our comms were very very weak. We need to practice our signals generally, tidy them up, remove ambiguity etc. I can't find the "Cave Divers Signals" book which was suggested available here in the UK, but I will seek out suitable alternatives.
Replacing the line
I'd love to, I've spoken to Ian about it often but it's not our lake.
Trying to control Ian's dive not my own
That's a very valid point. I think it can be read one of two ways...
"Bill failed to recognise the seriousness of
the situation and was wasting time
looking out for his buddy when he should
have been on his way up quickly".
-or-
"Bill had a potentially serious failure, made an
on the fly assessment as to time and gas
available and chose to still cover his buddy but
with caveats as to time limits applied"
Would one be a negative and the other a positive? I'll discuss this in more detail with Ian because I think is a very salient point but one which can be read either way.
Why didn't I go straight to the pony?
I wasn't going to shut down my main cylinder, I've never been trained to do so and it isn't a procedure I've ever tried underwater. There was still quite a lot of air available in the main cylinder, by breathing what was left of that gas it extended my gas available once I switched to the pony.
Please note, I switched to the Pony with 40 bar left in the main cylinder, this was intentional. This gave me one last option should the pony have failed at that moment (not switched on or something). At the rate of loss from the main cylinder I would have had almost one more minute of air available - and was on the line at 5m. If the pony had failed to deliver air... I would have still been able (if I chose - I'm sure I wouldn't) to have done a fairly controlled - but quick final ascent with that last minute of air.
Why the lack of urgency?
This has been raised a few times - and is a very valid point. This I think requires some introspection on my part. I will certainly give it some thought but I'll also explain my thought processes as the incident played out.
You'll notice after the freeflow and once I'm making my way up the line - that with each hand over hand, I turn my PDC's towards me. They're air integrated so I can see air left in the main cylinder and am doing so virtually every 5 or 10 seconds. Both PDCs are showing Bar and Air Time Remaining. The way they're configured for surface reserve, and with some mental arithmetic, I also know that there is around one more minute available past the time they show -
at the current rate of discharge which might not be a constant-.... after that I also have a 3L pony with another 700 litres of air which at 10 metres will support me for around 17 minutes, and at 5 metres around 23 minutes.
At the end of the video, I do mention that the Pony removed a lot of the urgency from my mind. As the incident started my brain was already working out the rate of loss on the main, and how long the pony could sustain me at whatever depth.
I think that without the pony and/or at a deeper depth you'd have seen me heading up that line much sooner, at a much higher pace and without even considering a safety stop.
Leaving a freeflowing reg (and then then the octopus) dangling where I had already identified entanglement hazards
No doubt - I failed there. There may have been an excuse for the primary as it escaped me after I tried to halt the freeflow, but once I discarded the Octopus there was absolutely no excuse.
Definitely a lesson learnt for me.
Buddy breathing
We've never been trained to do so, but I was aware that we could if necessary. But at 5m? No way, if it got to buddy breathing at 5m, we'd have been up and out like polaris missiles.
Being worried about not being able to inflate on the surface
Someone mentioned that scared them - that I was worried about not being able to orally inflate on the surface. I think they've misread my comments on that one. I wasn't worried about it all ... it was my brain looking at the next impending event - what might happen, what could happen etc etc. I wasn't sure I had seen Ian actually get any air into his wing when orally inflating underwater. It dawned on me that with his LPI under his arm - could he actually reach it?
The comment and observation in the video was about the fact that once we surface, we were both going to be busy orally inflating our own jackets - and therefore for a short moment atleast, would be unable to rely on, or offer, assistance should it be needed.
Both losing air at a serious rate
I've talked about my air integration and rate of loss.
When I checked Ian's SPG on the line he had I think ~180 bar. After surfacing, and maybe a minute or two later and after I shut down the offending post, he exited the water with 150 bar. His rate of loss was (I think) entirely manageable.
Regulators
They're cold water rated regs, environmentally sealed, in service and only 18 months old. I certainly haven't mentioned anything about them being high-flow or anything, they aren't - they're just typical recreational regs. I suspect it is me talking about the rate of discharge - for the purpose of helping others to understand how quickly a cylinder will empty. Apologies if I gave the wrong impression in doing so.
Ian and Shutdowns
Ian being unable to do shutdowns... we were already aware and had discussed this on numerous occassions. We long recognised the limitations of Ian diving what is effectively a single 24.
The comment "Until he can do shutdowns he's a liability and shouldn't be in the water"... Sorry I disagree, I consider the comment to be ill-judged.
If you were right, what you're effectively saying is that every single recreational diver going on holiday on a single with primary + octopus, which I would estimate constitutes 90% of the diving I see going on, is a liability and shouldn't go diving. I think most of the major agencies would be disagreeing with you too.
Had you said "if Ian is telling his buddies he can do shutdowns when he knows he can't then he's a liability...." then you'd have a very valid point and Ian would be making a very serious error.
Finally
Jax - well done for the redaction.
Tony Chaney in post #43 - yes quite close!
TSandM in post #44 - yes that is exactly it - we weren't taught, and yes closing paragraph is spot on about humility and wanting to learn
I feel really bad as I did to you what a lot on the board have done to me - made presumptions or jumped to conclusions.
